They’re not making existential crises like they used to.
Biblical floods, ice ages, flaming asteroids screaming towards Earth certainly threaten existence.
Texas gerrymandering? Not so much.
Earlier this month, California Democrats persuaded a majority of voters to cast aside the state’s voter-approved independent redistricting commission to redraw California’s congressional map mid-decade for purely partisan reasons.
California Democrats made the case that proposed gerrymandering in Texas – which was objectively an abomination – caused an existential crisis and the only way to stop it and President Donald Trump was to pass Prop 50 (another abomination).
“Voters have been able to hold two thoughts in their head at the same time, which is that they support independent redistricting but they also believe we’re in an existential crisis where something has to be done,” says Paul Mitchell, a California-based Democratic consultant who drew the gerrymandered maps, according to Mother Jones.
And yet, here we are. The independent redistricting commission is gone for a while, Trump is still president and Texas’ gerrymander was ruled unconstitutional this week by a federal court.
In truth, there was no existential threat. Sure, gerrymandering in Texas was bad. Corrupt, even. But what’s corrupt in Texas is corrupt in California and that’s what made Prop. 50 so awful.
Prop. 50 was billed as a response to Texas and was at first proposed with trigger language that would have enacted the new maps only if Texas’ went into effect. But then the legislature stripped out the provision – I wonder why?
At first it seemed California Democrats were uncomfortable with the idea of Prop 50. Many sincerely opposed gerrymandering and some thought it seemed like just another opportunity for Gov. Gavin Newsom to promote himself and his presidential ambitions (those fears proved to be true).
California Democratic lawmakers ultimately got on board, though, aided largely by support from leadership, who, conspicuously, now had new districts to run in that seemed perfectly drawn for them (then-Senate Majority Leader Mike McGuire has announced a run for Congress; Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas has not).
Newsom’s Prop. 50 push ramped up what started to look like a national redistricting war, as Republicans in states like Kansas and Indiana considered similar gerrymandering. However, legislative Republicans in both states blocked efforts to gerrymander.
“I haven’t heard a good reason yet to vote for it,” said Mark Schreiber, one of 10 Kansas Republican holdouts, according to NPR. “To me that’s not the purpose of redistricting. It’s not used as a political tool to increase your majority, it’s to adjust for population changes.”
Some Republicans in Indiana have held out, much to their own detriment. The holdouts have received national pressure fanned by Trump and others and have been victims of intimidation.
Sure, gerrymandered maps are proceeding in other states (for now, at least), but it’s to a significantly lesser degree than what was billed during Prop. 50’s passage. It’s the existential crisis that wasn’t.
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For all we heard about California Democrats fighting to save democracy (while actually eroding it), they showed very little courage when it mattered. Instead, Republicans in Kansas, Indiana and elsewhere are the ones showing courage.
Heck, even Democrats in other states, like Illinois and Maryland, are resisting pressure to gerrymander. Their motives are not necessarily pure, but people shouldn’t be given too hard of a time for doing the right thing.
Gerrymandering is bad. It makes a cynical electorate even more cynical and does nothing but disenfranchise voters and make the powerful more powerful.
California Democrats exposed themselves as hypocrites by pushing Prop. 50 despite purporting to support independent redistricting, all because Newsom wants a promotion and sees gerrymandering as his best chance to get attention.
The only existential threat to democracy in California is the Democrats who run the state.
Matt Fleming is an opinion columnist with the Southern California News Group. Follow him on X at @flemingwords or email him at flemingwords@gmail.com.